Gunman in Bay Terraces shot and killed

Robber set car afire, wounded resident in bid to escape

San Diego  Police officers shot and killed a robbery suspect Friday afternoon after an intense manhunt in Bay Terraces where a woman was held hostage and another neighbor was shot.

Officers swarmed the southeastern San Diego neighborhood near Woodridge Way, where the suspect fled after the 11:34 a.m. robbery at an Arco station on South Meadowbrook Drive, police Lt. Kevin Mayer said.

The robber, who has not been identified, swiped about $400 from the gas station and fired a shot from a small-caliber rifle that didn’t hit anyone before fleeing in a stolen white two-door Suzuki.

He drove about a mile away and crashed on Paradise Valley Road and Parkwood Drive, Mayer said.

He tried to set the car on fire, pouring gasoline over the coupe and lighting a crude Molotov cocktail before tossing it in the trunk. But the fire didn’t really catch.

The gunman jumped a fence and ran through yards to a home on Woodridge, where he encountered a man cleaning a fresh fish in his front yard, said the man’s brother, Martin Nava.

Nava said his brother went into the kitchen and the man followed him. When he told the man to get out of the house, he fired a shot toward the floor, Nava said. The shot hit his brother's middle toe, Nava said. The injury was minor and the man did not require hospitalization.

Next, he ran to another home, knocked on the door and told the man who answered that he had just committed a robbery and needed clothes. That person gave him a gray, long-sleeve shirt, Mayer said. But the resident refused to give him pants, and was able to shut the door and prevent him from hiding inside.

A police helicopter crew saw the man running though yards and jumping over fences before he ran into the open door of another home on Woodridge, where he held a woman hostage for a short time.

SWAT officers who surrounded the home saw the woman through a front screen door and the suspect standing behind her, police homicide Lt. Jorge Duran said. No weapon was seen.

They called for him to come out, but he cursed at them and refused. The front door was then closed, Duran said.

Moments later, officers saw a small bathroom window open, and the woman trying to squeeze out. They told her to push out a screen and then pulled her to safety, Duran said.

Officers led her behind an armored SWAT truck parked in front of the house and started to question her whether anyone else was inside when a loud crash erupted from the home.

The gunman had gotten into her Toyota in the garage and rammed it through the garage door in reverse in an attempt to escape.

The speeding Toyota was headed for officers gathered in the street, Duran said.

“They felt for sure they were about to be run over, and several fired their weapons,” Duran said.

The wounded suspect was pulled from the car and treated by paramedics but died at the scene.

When SWAT officers searched the home shortly after, they found the woman’s brother, who had locked himself safely in a bedroom.

Several residents were asked to stay inside and lock their doors throughout the incident, and police roped off the neighborhood for the investigation.

Alonso Militar, who has lived on Woodridge for about 30 years, was gone when the violence erupted and was unable to get back to his house, where his father was caring for his two children.

He said a school bus had just dropped off the children right before the incident started.

“I’m glad everybody’s OK. It could have been much worse,” Militar said, as he waited with his wife at a relative’s home nearby.

Bell Middle and Boone Elementary schools were put on lockdown during the incident, said San Diego Unified School District spokesman Jack Brandais.

Robbery and gang detectives were aiding in the investigation to see if the suspect was wanted in other holdups. The bomb squad responded to investigate the car fire and to disarm a second Molotov cocktail found inside.

Officers were also combing the neighborhood for the rifle used in the robbery.